


Warmth

by PontiusHermes



Series: Tales from a VA Hospital [3]
Category: The Predator (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, Hospitals, Nettles is sweet, Sickfic, Sweet, Veterans, divergence is slight, non-romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 22:09:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16206662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PontiusHermes/pseuds/PontiusHermes
Summary: Slight AU where McKenna is in the Veteran Hospital with the rest of the Looneys. He gets sick. Nettles is sweet and looks after him.





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> The Predator (2018) may not be the best movie ever, but I liked the characters (especially Nettles), so I'm playing with them. :)  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> Hermes

Nettles lay on his back, watching the darkness lighten in preparation for dawn. Although it had been fully dark when he woke, he felt too awake to go back to sleep. Meds could do that to you. And although he _really_ wanted to get up, he worried that doing so would wake McKenna, who was snoring in his bed only a couple of arm-lengths distant and probably wanted to remain that way.

 

Nettles rolled over to face his sleeping roommate and wondered what it was like to have a kid you only saw a few hours a week. Or just to have a kid, come to that. Or a wife. Well, an ex-wife, but anyway. Four equally impossible things for a man consigned to the VA hospital indefinitely. He’d have to ask.

 

There was a shuffle of linen as McKenna shifted inside his blanket cocoon – like a giant moth, thought Nettles, or a butterfly. Did moths even build cocoons? He wasn’t sure. Just at that moment, the cocoon split with a groan, revealing a bleary-eyed and distinctly un-moth-like former Army Ranger sniper.

 

‘Sh*t,’ muttered McKenna somewhat grouchily, rubbing his eyes.

‘Hey,’ Nettles whispered, ‘You OK?’

‘Hmm? Oh, yeah. Well, sick.’ McKenna rolled over to face his concerned friend and pulled a mock grumpy face.

Nettles sat up to better assess the situation. ‘How bad? Very bad? You look like sh*t, man. Do you need tea? I can get tea. Or a nurse? Do you need a nurse? What about a doctor? I-’

‘Nettles,’ interrupted McKenna gently, ‘Nettles, I’m OK.’

 

Nettles subsided with a sigh, still eyeing his no doubt gravely ill roommate with obvious concern. McKenna couldn’t help but smile. In the few months he’d been living at the VA hospital, it had become clear that the ex-pilot had no small amount of concern for his fellow patients, and a heart big enough to hold it all.

 

McKenna sneezed violently twice in succession and pulled his blankets more tightly around him. Nettles blessed him quietly and tossed him a box of tissues. McKenna took one gratefully and blew his nose. He was shivering, Nettles noticed with concern.

‘You _sure_ there’s nothing I can do for you?’

‘Yeah, yeah, m’fine.’

‘You cold?’

‘A bit. Don’t worry.’

 

Nettles untangled himself from his sheets and got out of bed. He picked up his blanket by two corners, shook it out, and draped it over McKenna’s shivering form.

‘Thanks,’ whispered McKenna hoarsely. Nettles patted him on the shoulder, just firmly enough to be felt through two layers of blankets.

‘Get better.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Hermes


End file.
